Mary Collins Charter School at Cherry Valley, Petaluma CA

Original Research by School Decision on Mary Collins Charter School at Cherry Valley

Mary Collins Charter School at Cherry Valley serves students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Petaluma, a mid-sized city on the Sonoma County coast. The school is a regular public charter with an enrollment of roughly five hundred students, the vast majority of whom are white, with small shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting modest economic diversity within the families served.

The school's academic profile is mixed, with strength in English language arts and acknowledged gaps in mathematics. Across all tested grades, students in ELA demonstrated proficiency that sits above the midpoint compared to other schools in Sonoma County. In the middle grades—seventh and eighth—proficiency was notably higher, in the low-to-mid seventy and sixty percentile ranges. By contrast, math proficiency was lower, clustering in the range of roughly half or fewer students meeting grade-level standards. Third grade math was the weakest point, while fourth and seventh grades performed somewhat better. The school offered science testing in grades five and eight, with results showing modest performance. ELA appears to be a relative strength; a parent concerned with reading and writing foundations might find encouragement in those results. Math, however, is a soft spot, and a family supporting a child who struggles in mathematics may want to look into how the school structures intervention and support in that subject.

Petaluma itself is a place of mixed character: a walkable historic downtown with shops, galleries, and music venues sits near the Petaluma River, but the city as a whole requires a car for most errands. The school sits at 1001 Cherry Street. Parks, a library, farmers markets, and civic spaces anchor daily life. Two commuter rail stations now serve the area, one downtown and one opened recently to the north. The city's economy is anchored by health care, retail, manufacturing, and food production, with companies like Amy's Kitchen and Lagunitas Brewing based locally. Housing prices in the Petaluma area are substantial—among the higher values in California—and rents are correspondingly high, placing affordability pressure on working families. This is a place where established homeowners and higher-income households dominate the market, though the city is actively planning infill housing and affordable developments to shift that pattern.

The parent district, Petaluma Joint Union High School District, has faced significant headwinds. Voters approved a major facilities bond in late 2024 meant to upgrade aging buildings, labs, security, and systems—a necessary investment but one that will increase property taxes for families with assessed property. More pressing for operating funds, two consecutive parcel tax measures failed to pass in 2024 and 2025, leaving the district facing substantial budget shortfalls that district officials have warned will lead to cuts in programs, staffing, and class sizes unless new revenue is found. This is a real constraint that shapes the environment a family would enter: the school itself may be sound, but the broader district context includes real fiscal pressure and unresolved questions about how to maintain educational quality and class size in coming years.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 47%

▲ 4 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 459%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 21 pts above county median

Grade 553%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 23 pts above state median · ▲ 23 pts above county median

Grade 635%

School 35% · District 35%

▲ 5 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 756%

School 56% · District 45% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 26 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 38% · ▲ 12 pts above district

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 20 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 354%

School 54% · District 54%

▲ 13 pts above state median · ▲ 12 pts above county median

Grade 451%

School 51% · District 51%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 9 pts above county median

Grade 565%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 18 pts above county median

Grade 660%

School 60% · District 60%

▲ 16 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 771%

School 71% · District 56% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 25 pts above state median · ▲ 25 pts above county median

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 53% · ▲ 11 pts above district

▲ 19 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

Science

Grade 559%

School 59% · District 59%

▲ 30 pts above state median · ▲ 26 pts above county median

Grade 847%

School 47% · District 32% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 19 pts above county median

Social studies

Grade 863%

School 63% · District 60% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

This schoolPetaluma Joint Union High, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income50%Higher-income55%5 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income55%17 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income73%Higher-income62%11 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income57%Higher-income62%5 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income62%Higher-income75%14 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income43%Higher-income71%29 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income46%Higher-income48%2 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income39%Higher-income65%27 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income33%Higher-income59%26 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income43%Higher-income31%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income54%Higher-income57%3 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income56%20 pp gap